Treesearch

Carbon (C)-informed forest management requires understanding how disturbance and management influence soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks at scales relevant to landowners and forest policy and management professionals. The continued growth of data sets and publications allows powerful synthesis approaches to be applied to such questions at increasingly fine scales. Here, we report results from a synthesis that used meta-analysis of published studies and two large observational databases to quantify disturbance and management impacts on SOC stocks. We conducted this, the third in a series of...

Woody tissue carbon (C) concentration is a key wood trait necessary for accurately estimating forest C stocks and fluxes, which also varies widely across species and biomes. However, coarse approximations of woody tissue C (e.g., 50%) remain commonplace in forest C estimation and reporting protocols, despite leading to substantial errors in forest C estimates. Here, we describe the Global Woody Tissue Carbon Concentration Database (GLOWCAD): a database containing 3,676 individual records of woody tissue C concentrations from 864 tree species. Woody tissue C concentration data—i.e., the...

Water availability and other site conditions influence poplar biomass productivity and affect clonal performance due to genotype × environment interactions. It is important to select genotypes with high water use efficiency (WUE) that maximizes yield with available amounts of water at sites, while avoiding drought stress and growth impacts to the trees. During drought, stomatal closure induces increased accumulation of δ13C carbon isotope in tree tissues, which is strongly correlated with WUE of trees and usually expressed through carbon isotope discrimination (Δ). Our primary objectives...

The wildland–urban interface (WUI) is the focus of many important land management issues, such as wildfire, habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and human–wildlife conflicts. Wildfire is an especially critical issue, because housing growth in the WUI increases wildfire ignitions and the number of homes at risk. Identifying the WUI is important for assessing and mitigating impacts of development on wildlands and for protecting homes from natural hazards, but data on housing development for large areas are often coarse. We created new WUI maps for the conterminous United States based on...

The boreal forest is one of the largest biomes on Earth, occurring in the northern high latitude regions mostly between about 50°N and 65°N (Fig. 1). The biome is dominated by coniferous trees, often occurring as extensive areas of purespecies, even-aged stands regenerated from large, stand-replacing disturbances. Its northern extent lies along the tundra-taiga ecotone; on its southern extent, boreal forest types begin to transition to more temperate conifer species and a greater mix of hardwoods (Goldblum & Rigg, 2010; Montesano, Neigh, Macander, Feng,&Noojipady, 2020). Natural disturbance...

Woody biomass from short-rotation woody crops (SRWCs) plays a substantial role in feedstock production for alternative energy sources throughout the world, thus helping to mitigate climate change driven by excessive use of fossil fuels. The establishment of these biomass production systems presents the basis for more efficient development of renewable energy sources while avoiding impacts (e.g., additional emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere) on essential ecosystem services such as clean water and healthy soils. In addition to these bioenergy-related uses, the increase of...

Successful willow (Salix spp., hybrids and cultivars) establishment is a major determinant of their effectiveness when grown for phytotechnologies. Vertically-planted hardwood cuttings have been shown to produce adequate willow growth and survival, although site conditions at phytoremediation installations can make vertical planting methods unsuitable. The DeValix willow mat restoration technique was designed and tested as an alternative horizontal planting method that can be installed by hand in a variety of environmental applications. The DeValix technique was evaluated by testing five...

The fourth full annual inventory of Minnesota's forest reports 17.6 million acres of forest land with an average live tree volume of 1,156 cubic feet per acre. Aspen is the most predominant forest type in Minnesota, making up 28 percent of the total area. Net growth exceeds removals in the State resulting in a growth to removals ratio (G/R) of 1.7, meaning that forest land is accumulating volume. Fragmentation and parcelization, aging forest cover, as well as threats from native and nonnative pests, are major issues that will impact the future of Minnesota's forests. Information from the...

Damage from infestations of Lymantria dispar L. in oak-dominated stands and southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann) in pine-dominated stands have far exceeded impacts of other disturbances in forests of the mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain over the last two decades. We used forest census data collected in undisturbed and insect-impacted stands combined with eddy covariance measurements made pre- and post-disturbance in oak-, mixed and pine-dominated stands to quantify how these infestations altered forest composition, structure and carbon dynamics in the Pinelands National...

This study examined the acceptability of different silvicultural treatments to restore pine barrens, an open, fire-dependent forest landscape type globally imperiled across the northern Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. In an online survey, we asked family-forest owners (N = 466) in NortheasternWisconsin about the acceptability of pine barrens restoration treatments through ratings of both verbal descriptions and visual scenarios. An informational statement about pine barrens restoration purposes and goals preceded ratings for half the sample. Across the entire sample,...